Box Score | Highlights | Photo Gallery | Austin Parkinson Postgame Interview

INDIANAPOLIS – Following the IUPUI women’s basketball team’s most recent loss at Oakland, head coach Austin Parkinson said that his squad needed to regain its identity on the defensive end if they were going to bounce back with a win against Western Illinois. The Jaguars did just that Saturday afternoon holding the Leathernecks to 23.3 percent shooting en route to claiming a 55-36 victory at The Jungle.

The win improved IUPUI to 8-7 overall and 2-1 in the Summit League, while the Leathernecks fell to 7-7 overall and 1-2 in conference action.

“We spent a lot of time on defense this week and that was the focus – to kind of get back to our identity and what we’re good at,” Parkinson said. “The kids really bought into that, played very well, and set the tone early and that carried throughout the game.”

The Jags outscored the Leathernecks 27-8 in points off turnovers and dominated the glass on both ends of the floor posting a 50-36 rebounding edge.

“We wanted to get 18 offensive rebounds – we got 16 – but we did a nice job on the defensive side of things by boxing out and playing athletic,” Parkinson added. “We’re an athletic team and I don’t think we’ve been rebounding like we were earlier in the season, but today we got back to that.”

While the Jags didn’t need a lot of offense, DeAirra Goss scored a game-high 15 points, all of which came in the first half, and Demetria Nunley-Lash chipped in a career-high 10 points off the bench to send the Jags to the win.

Offensively, the Jaguars got off to a slow start hitting just four of their first 14 shots from the floor as the Leathernecks took a 12-8 lead into the under-12 media timeout.

However, out of that timeout, the Jags were able to make a run thanks to their defensive intensity and offensive rebounding. IUPUI managed to hold WIU without a point from the 12:37 mark to the 5:37 mark and went on a 19-0 run during that span to catapult in front, 27-12. The run was fueled by seven points from Goss and four points each from Dee-Dee Bellamy and Kerah Nelson.

The Leathernecks were able to cut their deficit to 10 with a little more than a minute to play in the first half, but four points in the final minute from Goss sent the Jags into the half with a 34-20 advantage.

The Jags dominated the boards in the opening 20 minutes outrebounding WIU, 29-11, leading to an 8-0 edge in second-chance points.

Scoring was at a premium to start the second half as both teams combined to make just six field goals over the first eight minutes, but five of those came from IUPUI as it extended its halftime lead to 20, 43-23, with 11:17 to play.

Consecutive three’s by Nunley-Lash later in the half pushed the Jags advantage to 23 points, 53-30, with 5:30 to play, and from that point on, Western Illinois never threatened as IUPUI cruised to a 55-36 victory.

IUPUI held Western Illinois to just 10 made field goals for the game, and the Leathernecks final field goal occurred with 0.6 seconds on the clock. At the other end, the Jags managed to hit 20-of-60 from the floor.

The Jaguars will be back in action at The Jungle on Thursday, Jan. 10, when they welcome Summit League newcomer Omaha for a 7 p.m. tip. Jon Schade will have the call on IUPUIJags.com.